When Hu Hao asked if the neighboring provinces were simply going to be abandoned, Li Tianyuan nodded in sheer frustration.
“Just abandoned like that? And the civilians don’t even know? They’re going to wake up and find themselves living in occupied territory! What the hell is High Command thinking? Do civilian lives mean absolutely nothing to them?
And who are these Allied forces? They’re a coalition of over a dozen impoverished nations! Do you honestly think an army like that is going to have good discipline when they take our cities?” Hu Hao cursed loudly, his anger boiling over.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Li Tianyuan sighed. “The Empire never took this war seriously from the start. They kept hoping to resolve it through negotiations. Who knew the enemy had been preparing a full-scale invasion all along? And frankly… our Empire’s military is supposed to be incredibly strong. I still can’t understand how we’ve been beaten this badly. Dammit, it makes no sense to me either!”
“But why do we have to be the ones who stay behind? Why us?” Li Jingsong demanded, glaring at his father, his heart burning with rage.
“Because we are the garrison forces of Tianyu Province. We are expected to fight to the death here. Since the main force is retreating, as the local provincial army, we are required to cover the rear to ensure the successful withdrawal of the other units.
The ones who are truly being wronged are the 28th Army. They aren’t even from Tianyu Province. Lü Liqian, the Commander of the 28th, just called me. He said the Zone Commander told him flat out: if his troops don’t cover the retreat, every General in the 28th will be executed!” Li Tianyuan revealed to Li Jingsong and the others.
“What about us? I assume the Commander gave you a call too?” Hu Hao asked, standing nearby.
“The same,” Li Tianyuan admitted grimly. “All Generals executed. All field and junior officers demoted to Private. The 27th Corps will be dissolved, its designation erased. Every surviving soldier will be scattered among other units, permanently barred from promotion.”
“Ha. How ironic,” Hu Hao laughed bitterly.
He hadn’t wanted to be a soldier. He hadn’t wanted to climb the ranks. But this war just kept forcing his hand, dragging him deeper into the fire again and again.
“You all know the 26th Corps, right? The ones from Tianxiang Province?” Li Tianyuan continued. “They failed to reinforce us effectively early on, and when they finally arrived, their combat performance was abysmal. Every General in the 26th Corps has already been executed by firing squad. Every officer was demoted to Private. The 26th Corps designation has been officially erased. The Eastern Spirit Empire no longer has a 26th Corps.”
“What?!” Hu Hao and the others stared at Li Tianyuan in shock.
“So we have no choice but to fight. I don’t want to either, but it seems we are out of options,” Li Tianyuan said, looking at Hu Hao.
“Hao-ge, what do we do? Should we… should we just run? All of us?” Li Jingsong asked, turning to Hu Hao.
“Yeah, Hao-ge! Let’s desert! I refuse to believe they can catch us if we take off our uniforms. The whole region is descending into chaos. We can’t just march back into the meat grinder!” several Regimental Commanders pleaded, staring at Hu Hao.
Li Tianyuan looked at Hu Hao with deep concern. He desperately hoped Hu Hao wouldn’t agree, but he also knew the bitter truth: as Corps Commander, he had already lost control of his own army. The soldiers listened to Hu Hao now.
“Run? Run where?” Hu Hao asked, looking around at the desperate officers. “If it was just the few of us, I have no doubt we could slip away. But we have over three thousand brothers outside. If we run, where are we supposed to take three thousand men?”
The Colonels froze. They hadn’t thought that far ahead. Three thousand men couldn’t just vanish. Were they really going to abandon their soldiers to die alone?
“Hao-ge, then what the hell do we do? How are we supposed to fight this? We’re the rearguard! A rearguard almost never survives! If we stay here, we’re just waiting to die!” one Colonel said frantically. No one wanted to die.
Hu Hao let out a long breath. He took a deep drag of his cigarette, exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, and stared out into the ruins.
“Hao-ge, give the word. We fight or we run—the brothers will follow you,” a Colonel said firmly.
Hearing those words only amplified the crushing weight on Hu Hao’s shoulders. He knew the soldiers looked up to him, but he had never wanted to be their leader. He had no ambitions for a military career.
His initial thought had simply been: Since I’m stuck in this war, I’ll help whoever I can. Save whoever I can.
But now, that simple act of survival had evolved into a massive, suffocating pressure.
If he were alone, he could walk off the battlefield right now. But he wasn’t alone.
Thousands of eyes were fixed on him, silently pleading for him to carve out a path to survival.
“Hao-ge, please… say something,” Xiao Quan begged.
“Run? How do we run? And where does it end?” Hu Hao asked softly, turning back to them. “The neighboring provinces have been emptied of troops; they’ll fall to the Allied forces immediately. And if we try to flee back to our homes… do you really think High Command won’t hunt us down? When will we actually be safe?”
The officers lowered their heads. Desertion wasn’t a long-term solution, and there was no clear end in sight.
“And you can forget about running anyway,” Li Tianyuan interjected. “If we desert, our families will be implicated. Every piece of property your families own will be confiscated by the state. That is the Empire’s wartime law. You can look it up yourselves.”
“Dammit!” a Colonel cursed viciously.
“They’re not leaving us any way out! Motherfuckers!” another Colonel spat.
They wanted to run, but they hadn’t considered the blowback on their families. Everyone had people waiting for them. No one wanted their families stripped of everything they owned. In a time of war, life was going to be brutally hard anyway; without their homes and savings, how would their wives and children survive the chaos?
“Hao-ge, what do we do?” a Colonel asked, tears streaming down his face. His eldest child had just started middle school, and his youngest was still in primary school. The Empire was chaining him to the battlefield.
“Hao-ge, please… find us a way out. The boys don’t want to die,” another Colonel pleaded, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
Hu Hao sat down heavily, smoking his cigarette in furious, rapid drags as his mind raced.
“Report, Corps Commander!” A guard rushed into the ruined building. “Commander Lü and several Division Commanders from the 28th Army are here to see you.”
“Send them in,” Li Tianyuan nodded.
Hearing this, the Colonels quickly turned away and wiped their faces with their sleeves.
“Brother Li, what are we going to do?” An anxious, overweight man in his sixties hurried into the room. It was Lü Liqian, Commander of the 28th Army.
“Brother Lü, we were just discussing that. Do you have any options on your end?” Li Tianyuan asked.
“What options could I possibly have? They’ve blocked every exit! Sigh… we don’t know what to do. The men have completely lost the will to fight. We’re a remnant force to begin with; trying to convince them to march back to the front line is impossible.
And we can’t desert. The orders came straight from High Command to Zone Command. The Commander told me our two remnant corps are the only ones suited for the rearguard. Tell me, what are we supposed to do? The 28th is being sent to die for nothing!” Lü Liqian lamented, looking as though he might break down in tears.
“Sigh. I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Brother Lü. I never expected it to come to this. We don’t know what to do either. If there is anything you need from me, just say the word. If I can do it, it’s yours,” Li Tianyuan offered apologetically.
“Don’t say that, don’t say that. You’re in the exact same boat as me. Sigh… let’s just try to think of a way out of this,” Lü Liqian waved his hands dismissively.
“Hao-ge, have you thought of anything?” A Division Commander from the 28th spotted Hu Hao sitting quietly and immediately asked.
“Not yet. I only just heard the news,” Hu Hao smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“Sigh… what are we going to do?” The 28th Army Generals were practically pacing with anxiety.
“You must be Hu Hao, right? Thank you. Thank you for everything you did to help our boys out there,” Lü Liqian said, turning to him with genuine gratitude.
“You’re too kind, General. I didn’t do much. But let’s put that aside for now and focus on finding a solution,” Hu Hao replied, waving a hand.
“Yes, yes. We must find a way,” the officers agreed, nodding vigorously.
Hu Hao sat there, a million curses running through his head. Why am I always this unlucky? Every time he turned around, there was another battle.
This time it was worse—he had been dropped into a completely foreign world, and he didn’t even fully understand how this war had started.
Desertion was off the table. He had initially planned to accumulate enough merit points to earn an honorable discharge, but now High Command had slammed that door shut. They were forcing him to fight.
Hu Hao sat in silence, smoking furiously while everyone else stared at him, completely devoid of their own ideas.
“I need intel,” Hu Hao suddenly said. He tossed his cigarette butt to the ground, crushed it under his boot, and looked up at the Generals. “Tell me everything you know. Every piece of intelligence you have.”
“What intel? We don’t know much either. Tell us what you need, and we’ll try to find it,” Li Tianyuan replied.
Hu Hao stared at him. A Corps Commander who didn’t even know what kind of intelligence was tactically relevant? It was painfully clear just how incompetent the Empire’s hereditary Generals truly were.
“I need to know exactly how many Allied units are currently deployed outside Langcheng, and their designations. I need to know the specific characteristics and combat styles of those units.
Furthermore, if we are the rearguard, they have to give us parameters! Where exactly are we supposed to hold the line? They can’t just toss us into the city and leave us! At what specific geographic point do we block the enemy, and until what time are we required to hold before we are cleared to retreat? There has to be a specific operational directive!” Hu Hao demanded, staring hard at Li Tianyuan.
“Right! Of course. We’ll find out right now. I’ll call Zone Command immediately!” Li Tianyuan said, quickly turning to his aides.